


Princess Grace

by flaming_muse



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-29
Updated: 2011-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-18 19:29:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It is eleven o’clock at night, eleven o’clock at night on a day during which I have been shot at twice, chased down an alley by thugs in fast cars, and hit on the head with a very large fish.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Princess Grace

Danny’s voice was strained when he answered Steve’s call. “It is eleven o’clock at night, eleven o’clock at night on a day during which I have been shot at twice, chased down an alley by thugs in fast cars, and hit on the head with a very large fish. Unless it is an issue of national security, I do not want to talk about the case. Even if it _is_ an issue of national security, I do not want to talk about it. I especially do not want to talk about the fish.”

“I don’t want to talk about the fish, either,” Steve told him.

“As reassuring as that is, is there another emergency that requires me to do more running than is healthy for normal people and/or be pummelled with sea creatures? Because if there is I might like to tender my resignation in the next thirty seconds.” There was some sort of muffled talking behind him, and Steve realized suddenly that Danny wasn’t alone. The indistinct voice was definitely female, and it didn’t sound like the television. His heart sank.

“No, no emergency.”

“So?”

“Uh. Well, I was going to offer to bring over some beer. And maybe some air freshener for your car.”

Danny huffed out a laugh. “So it _is_ about the fish. Great. Look, you can mock me about it tomorrow. I am declaring this evening a mocking-free zone.”

Steve knew Danny had company, he _knew_ , he could _hear_ her (sort of, barely, just a hint of soprano tones), but he couldn’t stop himself from suggesting, “I could bring the beer and leave the mocking at the door.”

“Another night,” Danny replied. “I will take a rain check for that night without mocking. You mocking me, anyway; I never promised it would go both ways.” There was another sound in the background, and he said, “I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow.”

And with that Danny hung up, leaving Steve sitting in his truck with a sweating six-pack of beer on the passenger seat and an empty feeling in his chest. He knew Danny had a life outside of work, and he’d been separated from Rachel long enough that he was probably ready to find someone new. It was good for him. Their line of work could take over every minute, and it was important to have a way to let out some of the emotion they had to bottle up to survive. Besides, Danny was a catch. Of course women would like him.

Still, it hurt somehow that Danny was spending a Thursday night with someone else Steve didn’t even know about instead of blowing off steam with some beer and ribbing the way they usually did. It was stupid, but it felt wrong.

Steve put his car into gear and started to drive home. The home he drove to, without much thought, wasn’t his, though; it was Danny’s. He could tell himself it was unconscious, but he knew better. He just had to see.

Steve sat in the parking lot, watching the fun house shadows playing across the curtained windows of Danny’s apartment. There seemed to be a lot of flailing going on, arms waving and was that someone hurling themselves across the room?

Something wasn’t right. Steve strode across the parking lot and knocked on the door. After a long minute, Danny opened the door maybe an inch and peered outside.

“Steve?”

“Hi.”

Danny stared at him. “What’s - ?” There was the sound of dishes rattling and a girlish giggle from behind him. “You know what? Let’s do this somewhere not here.”

“Okay.” Steve took a step back.

“What are you doing here?” Danny asked, glancing over his shoulder before slipping out the barely open door. He held one hand behind his back, and his hair was unusually messy. It looked good, really, all tousled and casual. Steve wondered who had been putting her fingers through it.

“I was driving by, and I saw a lot of movement behind the windows, so...”

“Are you stalking me now?”

It was a fair question, but Steve was firm. “No. I am not stalking you. I was just worried that those guys today had friends, and I saw weird shadows and - “

Danny held up the hand that wasn’t behind his back. “Stop right there.” He waited for a minute, his eyebrows lifted in challenge, before giving a pleased nod and saying, “Good. Okay. Let me get this straight. You were driving by because you were worried about me? And you knocked because you saw shadows? Shadows from my bright apartment on my closed windows? The way light works?”

“I was driving by because I was _driving by_ ,” Steve told him. “I got worried when I saw - “

“Hurry, Danno!” came a shriek from inside the apartment.

Steve blinked as the world shifted around him. He knew that voice. Relief washed over him. “Wait, is that Grace?”

“Yes,” Danny said.

“Isn’t Rachel supposed to have her?”

“She and Step-Stan had to go out of town at the last minute.”

“Danno!” Grace yelled.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Steve asked, frowning. “And doesn’t she have school tomorrow? Isn’t it kind of late?”

The door burst open behind Danny, and Grace, in a long pink and lace dress - okay, a _gown_ , with puffy sleeves and glitter around the hem - and with a sparkling plastic tiara perched on top of her pigtailed head, grabbed the hand Danny had behind him. “Come on! She’s about to get in the car! Hurry!”

Steve looked between Grace and her father. He had no idea what to think. “What?”

“You might as well come in,” Danny said with a resigned sigh.

“And put your tiara back on, Danno,” Grace told Danny, towing him to the couch. There was a plate with tiny little sandwiches on the coffee table, and two mismatched tea cups held a pale liquid that could only be tea.

“Mocking-free zone, Stephen.” The mystery of the hand behind the back was solved as Danny made a expression that combined mortification and adoration and placed the previously hidden tiara onto his head. It was somewhat less sparkly and impressive than Grace’s. But still, _tiara_. Steve had to look away in order to keep a straight face.

On the television, there was a shot of a black car standing at a doorway with some people fluttering around it. A photographer skirted the car, and then Grace shrieked, “Here she is!” A dark-haired woman in a white dress and veil got into the car very, very carefully. “And she’s wearing a tiara! I knew she would! Princesses should wear tiaras, not just flowers!”

Danny shot Steve a look that warned of intense and extended suffering if he mocked so much as the color of the driver’s coat.

“She looks great?” Steve offered. He automatically scoped out her very impressive security detail.

“She’s beautiful,” Grace said with a smile. “Just like Mommy.”

“And like you, monkey,” Danny told her, and she actually looked away from the screen long enough to beam at him.

“Here they go!”

Some hours later, after Danny tucked an exhausted but still tiara-wearing Grace into bed, he leaned against the jamb of the door and gave Steve a tired smile.

“Thank you, Prince Stephen. Princess Grace’s evening would not have been the same without you.”

“Well, it would have been weird for her to marry her father,” Steve said, remembering the way Grace’s little hands had felt in his - trembling with joy and clinging with trust - as she made him stand beside her during the ceremony like William stood beside Kate. Even the memory made something inside him melt, and his heart felt suddenly too big for his chest.

“You’re still too old for her,” Danny told him. “I’ll have to arrest you for that tomorrow.”

“I’m just glad _I_ didn’t have to wear a tiara.”

Danny snatched said headpiece off of his head and rolled his eyes. “If you are ever lucky enough to have a daughter anywhere near perfect as Grace, you’ll find yourself doing a hundred things you would never have dreamed of.”

Steve shook his head and couldn’t help his smile. He felt warm all over, and not just from the sultry night air. “You could have just told me, Danny,” he said softly.

“Right, and add princess to the things you’d call me in the morning?”

“You’re a great father, Danno,” Steve told him. “I’d never mock you for that.”

Danny rubbed a hand over his face before smiling back at Steve. “Thanks, babe.”

Steve could have leaned in and kissed him. He wanted to. He wanted to taste that smile and capture even a hint of the boundless affection that Danny felt for people he cared about. But it was late, and it had been a very long day. Besides, Grace was in the apartment, and Steve didn’t think he’d be able to stop with one kiss.

But there would be another day. Maybe even tomorrow... after he gave Danny the air freshener.


End file.
